


Self Taught

by waterbird13



Series: Tumblr Fics [324]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Self Confidence Issues, Self Esteem Issues, self taught Sam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-29 18:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8499964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterbird13/pseuds/waterbird13
Summary: Sam's self conscious about being self taught.





	

It’s the fact that he taught himself calculus out of a stolen textbook so he could keep up with his new school. Or that he almost graduated pre-law, almost got into law school, but almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and he learned most of his law from watching _The Good Wife_  whenever he can catch an episode. Or the fact that he speaks a handful of languages but, other than that one semester of Spanish at Stanford, he taught most of them to himself, and he’s embarrassed to ever have anyone who actually speaks the language hear him speak.

Basically, Sam’s a mess of _this is probably right_  and _it’s the best I have to go off of_  and _I hope this works_ , and he’s waiting for the day it blows up in his face, for someone to look at him and laugh.

He always manages to scrape by, to pass under the radar and do things just correct enough for no one to notice, but he’s always worrying about slipping up. There will come a day where he doesn’t know enough, where what he taught himself will be wrong, where he won’t be able to pull it off and make people believe he knows what he’s doing. The best he can ever do is hope that today is not that day. 

He and Kevin are actually getting research done–Dean’s run off to god knows where again, big surprise–when Kevin throws a book down in frustration. “I’m a goddamn prophet but God couldn’t even throw in some magical language skills?” he seethes. “I can read his stupid tablets but not…whatever this is.”

Sam looks over his shoulder. It’s actually just pretty archaic Latin, and he starts to read aloud over Kevin’s shoulder, haltingly delivering a translation. Kevin spins in his seat to stare at him, and Sam’s suddenly self-conscious.

“I mean…I think that’s what it says,” he says. “It might be. But I could be wrong. Maybe we should find a translator somewhere, see if they have something like that around here.”

Kevin shakes his head. “No, I-I’m sure you’re right, Sam,” he says. “That’s really cool. Where’d you learn that?”

Sam shifts in his seat, and he hops the blush he knows he’s getting isn’t too obvious. “I learned Latin from Pastor Jim., growing up. Uh, Church Latin. After that…the rest is a lot of reading, some deductions. I think it’s pretty close, though.”

“Awesome,” Kevin says. He hoists the book up, then drops it in front of Sam, taking the one Sam’s been reading for himself. “You can read it then, since you know what you’re doing.”

Sam doesn’t protest, just begins to translate, relieved. He got through one more thing well enough without the way he learned, or how he learned, being too much of a problem.


End file.
